October 18, 2017 By Sharon Gray in Newsletter
Article Synopsis – Researchers have found that just ten rivers contribute up to 95 percent of the eight million tons of plastic waste that enter the world’s oceans every year. The researchers’ calculations indicated that the amount of plastic in rivers was related to the mismanagement ...
Read More...October 17, 2017 By Sharon Gray in Newsletter
Article Synopsis – For the first time in 7,000 years, a phenomenon known as “upwelling” (the upward flow of warmer ocean water to the surface), is thought to have caused recent ice shelf collapse around Antarctica. The Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) is about 3⁰C above the ...
Read More...October 16, 2017 By Sharon Gray in Newsletter
Article Synopsis – Fossil evidence in drowned coral reefs shows that sea level did not rise steadily but rather in sharp, punctuated bursts when the planet’s glaciers melted at the close of the last ice age. Non-linear sea-level rise poses a particular risk to those communities ...
Read More...October 14, 2017 By Sharon Gray in Newsletter
Article Synopsis – The horrific news that all but two penguin chicks have starved to death out of a colony of almost 40,000 birds is a grim illustration of the enormous pressure Antarctic wildlife is under. This “catastrophic breeding event” is the second time in just four years ...
Read More...October 13, 2017 By Sharon Gray in Newsletter
Article Synopsis – Researchers measuring the waters surrounding Greenland have found that the melting ice sheet is causing a decrease in salinity that could affect the marine food chain as well as the climate in Europe. Salinity measurements taken in the Young Sea showed an increase ...
Read More...October 12, 2017 By Sharon Gray in Newsletter
Article Synopsis – Deadly wildfires have raged across California’s wine country, leaving at least 29 dead and a trail of destruction in their wake. These are a few of the major climate-related factors that may be at play: rising temperatures make vegetation drier and more likely ...
Read More...October 11, 2017 By Sharon Gray in Newsletter
Article Synopsis – Anote Tong, the former president of the tiny island nation of Kiribati, is trying to combat climate change while helping his country adapt to it. Tong has investigated numerous possible solutions to the threat of rising sea levels, ranging from land reclamation technology ...
Read More...October 10, 2017 By Sharon Gray in Newsletter
Article Synopsis – In recent years, residents of Hamilton Beach and Broad Channel, NY, have reported a dramatic increase in the frequency and volume of sunny-day floods. By the 2050s, portions of these two neighborhoods may face daily tidal flooding. A sea level rise of just ...
Read More...October 09, 2017 By Sharon Gray in Newsletter
Article Synopsis – A giant hole almost the size of the state of Maine, known as a polynya, has opened up in the sea ice cover of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. This is the first time a hole of this magnitude has been observed in the Weddell Sea in ...
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